Adb over wireless without usb cable at all for not rooted phones

Question

I want to debug Android APPs on my phone (LG nexus 4). I'm travelling and I forgot my USB cable. When I work at home I can do it just connecting the USB cable and executing the command 'adb tcpip 5555'. Then I can unplug the USB cable and connect via 'adb connect IP'.

But now I cannot execute the first command because I don't have a cable. I don't understand why I have to do it every time, since I already execute the 'adb tcpip' command before.

What I tried now:

I installed a terminal application on my Android and tried to execute that command there, but I received a "device not found" error. Maybe he cannot see himself...

I search for any reasonable option in "Android Development Options" and enabled everything seemed to have relation with Wifi. But nothing helped.

I search StackOverflow, but all answers I found involving connect via USB cable before. Is there I way to do this connection without the need of a cable at all?

Some info: My Nexus 4 isn't rooted. The android version is 5.1.1.

Answer 1

Had same issue, however I'm using Macbook Pro (2016) which has USB-c only and I forgot my adapter at home.

Since unable to run adb at all on my development machine, I found a different approach.

Connecting phone with USB cable to another computer (in same WiFi) and enable run adb tcpip from there.

Master-machine : computer where development goes on, with only USB-C connectors

Slave-machine: another computer with USB and in same WiFi

Steps:

1. Connect the phone to a different computer (slave-machine)
2. Run adb usb && adb tcpip 5555 from there

3. On master machine

   deko$: adb devices
   List of devices attached
   
   deko$: adb connect 10.0.20.153:5555
   connected to 10.0.20.153:5555
   

4. Now Android Studio or Xamarin can install and run app on the phone

---

Sidenote:

I also tested Bluetooth tethering from the Phone to Master-machine and successfully connected to phone. Both Android Studio and Xamarin worked well, however the upload process, from Xamarin was taking long time. But it works.